March 18, 2009

'Battlestar Galactica's' trip to the United Nations

It seemed fitting that the rag-tag fleet’s journey ended at the United Nations.

Since the debut of “Battlestar Galactica,” which ends its run in spectacular style on Friday (8 p.m. Central, Sci Fi; four stars), the drama has depicted the remnants of humanity in a desperate struggle for survival. During the course of four seasons, they not only endured the worst that their Cylon enemies had to dish out, they discovered the darkest impulses that lurked in their own hearts.

As a method of resistance, they used suicide bombers. To get information, they tortured Cylons. When they suspected treason, they turned on each other and tossed traitors out the ship’s airlock. They constantly struggled to balance human rights with the precarious security of the fleet, which started out with around 50,000 survivors but lost thousands along the way.

“We saw … good people making really ugly choices,” moderator Whoopi Goldberg said near the end of Tuesday’s two-hour panel on the show at the United Nations.

The panel, which included executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick and stars Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos as well as four U.N. officials, was organized by the U.N. as part of a new effort to link the organization’s concerns to the creative community. It was held in the Economic and Social Council Chamber, an imposing room full of rows of delegate seating facing a dais on one end of the room. In the audience were fans of the show, network executives, members of the media and more than 100 high school students, who were there representing Think Quest NYC, an educational outreach project.

The audience members sat in the seats reserved for diplomats and delegates, but instead of nameplates listing the names of real countries, signs in front of each seat said “Caprica,” “Gemenon,” “Picon” and the names of the other nine colonies seen on the Sci Fi show. The overall effect made you feel as though you’d stepped onto one of the show’s sets; perhaps “Battlestar’s” president Laura Roslin (McDonnell) was about to pacify the restive Quorum of the Twelve Colonies.

But this wasn’t a set. And despite the fact that “Battlestar Galactica” is set in a fictional universe, the United Nations representatives on the panel praised the show for its depiction of the ways in which war, torture, deprivation and terrorism affect real people.

Robert Orr, an anti-terrorism expert and the U.N.’s Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning, pointed out that a few months ago, in that very room, victims of terrorism attacks told their harrowing tales to an array of diplomats. Their stories had an effect: Orr talked about seeing those officials “throw out their talking points” and began to take seriously the idea of linking basic human rights to their nations’ anti-terrorism efforts.

Orr spoke after the audience was shown a “Battlestar” clip in which military leader Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) defended the use of suicide bombers against the Cylons. In that episode – not for the first time -- the show put viewers in an uncomfortable position. The grizzled Tigh is one of the show’s best-loved characters, yet here he was advocating terrorist tactics and telling the president he didn’t have time for her “pieties.”

“We don’t like to confront these tough issues in our world. But they are oh so real,” Orr said. “If a show like ‘Battlestar Galactica’ can get us think about it and can get us talking about it… It isn’t easy. I’ve heard these words from people. But they weren’t actors.”

Craig Mokhiber, deputy director of the New York office of the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, talked about how the show, via the human-Cylon struggle for dominance, examined “this idea of the Other – defining human beings as being the Other so that we can dehumanize them and ultimately destroy them.”

“We are all entitled to a social and international order in which all of the rights and freedoms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be fully realized, regardless of race, sex, language or religion,” Mokhiber. Linking the quest for basic human rights to the “Battlestar” characters’ search for Earth, he said, “I would suggest that this is the mythical Earth for which we are all searching.”

Soon after that statement, Olmos’ gravelly voice rumbled across the hall.

“You should have never invited me here,” he chuckled. While praising Mokhiber’s efforts, he objected to the use of the word “race as a cultural determinant.”

“We’ve made the word race a way of expressing culture,” Olmos said. “There’s only one race, and that’s what the show brought out – that is the human race. Period.”

After expanding his point on how the construct of race had been used to justify oppression, he repeated loudly, “There is but one race! So say we all!” There was vociferous applause and chants of the “Battlestar” catchphrase reverberated through the august chamber.

One of the high school students in the audience asked if she should be worried about the fact that almost most people these days, especially young people, are “addicted” to technology. As viewers saw over the course of four seasons of “Battlestar,” letting technology get out of hand can potentially lead to, well, attempted genocide, among other unpleasant things.

Moore responded that for older people, the idea of true artificial intelligence was “science fiction,” whereas young people will deal with those kinds of developments as reality. The ethical dilemmas that come with creating life, even artificial life, will “rush up on us before” we’re ready to confront them, Moore said.

Goldberg had a few choice words for the over-reliance on gadgets. “Put the thing down once in a while,” she remarked dryly.

Later, McDonnell responded eloquently to a question about the imperatives of the military versus the rule of democracy and Roslin’s role in executing the fleet’s enemies. For a woman who had been perceived, early on, as a tentative former schoolteacher, President Roslin didn’t blink when it came to tossing a fractious Cylon into space. In fact, in time fans started to call her character “Madam Airlock.”

“She can talk about how she was haunted by the airlock,” Eick said. “But she’s also the one who made it a verb.”

“The series is winding down this week,” Goldberg said near the end of the session. “What do you want people to take away from it?”

Olmos said he hoped that, on their deathbeds, those who had spent many hours of their lives watching every episode of the show would not feel that time had been wasted. And he gave an eloquent speech about how, at every stage, the scripts that the writers came up with had been elevated not just by the cast and crew and the post-production staff, but by the bloggers and the fans who obsessively analyzed every aspect of the show.

“They took it to a level that was immensely further than we had ever intended,” he said. “We had to give up our ownership and …allow them to give us” their feedback, and in his view, the show was better for it.

McDonnell said she hoped that people had absorbed the show’s themes of “patience” and “forgiveness” as the means to “break the cycle of violence.”

Moore’s first response was to say that he hoped that people were entertained. And indeed, the show would never have been a success had it not told these challenging stories of morality and ethics through the prism of compelling characters and emotionally nuanced relationships (not to mention some pretty cool space battles).

“He creates from a place that doesn’t seem to be conscious of what people need. He has an instinct for it. It’s in his subconscious,” McDonnell said of Moore at a post-panel cocktail reception at the U.N. “But because he isn’t trying to teach anyone anything, he incorporates the human experience, which includes a great deal of humor and a great deal of complexity.”

“We challenged the audience in a lot of ways,” Moore noted at the close of the panel. “We pushed a lot of tough ideas on the audience, we made them look at a lot of ugly things over the course of these four [seasons]. We made them question their heroes, we had them rooting for villains. We had them trying to grapple with really complex moral and ethical dilemmas in the guise of a weekly television series about killer robots in outer space.”

“I guess if you watched this series and you decided to think about some of the issues that ‘Battlestar Galactica’ talked about, if what you end up believing at the end is the exact same thing you thought in the beginning -- at least you thought about it,” he concluded. For more on “Battlestar Galactica,” including a post-finale interview with Moore, come back to this site early Saturday, after the series finale airs.

Comments

Mo, thanks for the insight into the UN panel! Oh, to have been there...

When I heard about this event, my jaw dropped and I was speechless. For a show that is so egregiously snubbed by the Emmys year after year, they now have the ability to tell them to suck it -- BSG went to the UN instead. Heh.

Amazingly, the marriage of BSG and the UN completely worked. BSG has given us a lot to think about over the years -- whether we want to or not -- and to be able to delve into many of those issues so deeply with some people who were clearly unaware of the show, I think, will be one of the great lasting effects of this series. This show had/has the power to touch SO many, whether or not they're regular viewers.

Hey Janelle, don't worry, you can watch the entire discussion online, as RealMedia stream at http://www.un.org/webcast/2009.html (direct link: http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/specialevents/2009/se090317pm.rm ). With mplayer, e.g. you can even download it :). Do watch it, it's really remarkable. Olmos was soo spot on right about the "race" construct. I marveled at his boldness in telling that the High represantative for Human Rights :). Really remarkable event :).

And I really liked the U.N. guy talking 'bout terrorism and how counter-terrorism has to have human rights as its core fundament and founding principle and how the stories of the victims of acts of terrorism really related to the decisionmakers at the U.N.

It really was a fitting event, much better and more meaningful than the emmys. And why crave for emmys anyway, we already have the Peabody :):):).

Mo here: Thanks for posting the link, I was just about to do that -- thank you! Agreed, a Peabody and a UN panel is pretty frakkin cool. And if the Emmys can't get on board, they're just once again proving their irrelevance.

Excellent write up - you made me feel like I was in the audience. This also reminds me of the movie Happy Feet and how in an entertaining way it showed 1) it is ok to be different, 2) how humans were depleting the fish population that the penquins thrived on and 3) the global argument about whether to continue fishing so close as to upset the food chain and eradicate animals based on human greed.

BSG left me exhausted every Friday night thinking who is the real enemy here? The Cylons stealing a bomb to nuke humans? The humans sending a bomber to an assembly to detonate himself? Humans and Cylons torturing each other to get information?

BSG never made cardboard characters or paint the good guys as white hats and the bad guys as black hats.

Everyone - Cylon and Human alike seemed to be acting based on their beliefs, stress, fear, greed, courage - every emotion possible.

This show did make me think about what is done in the name of democracy and war - and if it got the UN to listen to people who live this every day, then maybe our Earth has a chance for worldwide peace.

But I was surprised to read in several places that most of the UN panel members had never seen the show - only the clips being presented,

I wish I could have been there with you.

Mo here: I was under the impression that at least three of the panel members had watched episodes in preparation for the panel. Not sure all of them did, but from the comments they made, it sounded like they'd watched episodes relevant to what they were discussing.

What a great mesh of fiction & reality. Sci-fi isn't just for geeks anymore.......it's always been a way to play out scenarios that investigate where we'll go if we keep going this way. Next up: Kim Stanley Robinson's _Mars_ trilogy would be a great vehicle for a discussion about environmental stewardship and its cultural/religious underpinnings.

Thanks, Mo, for including this article in this space. I'll certainly watch the full UN discussion at the earliest possible convenience.

I wonder how surprised RDM actually is, in his heart of hearts, that this show has generated this kind of attention. I also wonder how this kind of attention affects him as an artist. I can only imagine how he has chosen to move forward in the creative process without comparing everything to the success of BSG.

Not only the Mars trilogy, which is brilliant, but also Robinson's Science in the Capital trilogy (40 Days of Rain, 50 Degrees Below, 60 Days and Counting) which is all about climate change and the relationship of science and politics in the US (plus an attempt to lead a paleolithic lifestyle in DC). Amazing stuff, must read for politicians. And a bit more of an immediate concern than the colonisation of the outer planets...

I was lucky enough to be there in person and agree with everything Mo said.

I was extremely moved and uplifted by the discussion.

I think this just goes to show that a television series can in fact not only raise important issues, but inspire action surrounding them. Just look at those 100 high school kids who chose to spend their st. patrick's day at the UN instead of out with their friends. Doesnt get much more inspirational than that if you ask me.

Also participating in an Edward James Olmos "So Say We All" chant was pretty much the coolest thing I've ever done.

Mo here: Know what you mean. It was an incredibly exciting and fun event, and I got chills when Olmos made the chamber echo with that chant.

The guy that killed Tory during the Resurrection technology upload - he went to England's Scotland - "a island of the northern continent with no Humans 150K years ago!

So the Neanderthals are all his decendents. What a jerk he killed Tory - ingrate as she saved the final 5 from being exposed by that guys cheating Wife who bore a kid that's not his even. And what an Ingrate barbarian so thankless as she saved the boy that his wife was going to commit suicide with. So Tori killed that biach for good reasons, she saved many lives by doing it.

Plus Tori was his wife 3 thousands years ago on the 1st Earth.

Well the reason for dumping the fleet into the Sun is preposterous for many reasons:

1: Lee Adama the fool - claimed that it will break the endless cycle - WRONG as keeping the technology and teaching the Native population of New Earth of the dangers and the horror story of caprica and the 13 Colonies of Man and Human-Cylons doom via military robots is the only way to break the cycle.

2: Adam et al, claimed that we have had our Technology race ahead while our hearts our love our compassion - really meaning our wisdom has laged behind. Well as we can see they never did teach any love and mercy and universal brotherhood like The Great Sikhs of India alone teach.

3: What love and Grace did they teach by dumping the raced ahead of the Wisdom technology? We ended up with the Dark Ages, the fake Witch burnings, Draconian fnatical Islamists, Slavery of Whites and Blacks. The Bible teaches to give slaves Sunday off because Christian God rested on 7th Day claim. But the true God would have said Ban slavery instead - man made rubbish.

4: Now China and Korea will make Military Warrior Robots - Why? Because Lee Adam and the Stupic fleet never did teach us to Love our Robots and Program them with Grace and never for War. All the Warning history of mistakes was dumped into the Sun -

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